Pauline Dalmasso

Pauline Dalmasso is a rally driver and co-driver who has been in the driving seat since 2018, although she has been navigating for slightly longer. Both she and her sister Charlotte have won the French ladies’ rally title.

Her first car was a Ford Fiesta R2T and she competed in National and Regional-level events in France, concentrating on asphalt rallies. 

Her first three rallies ended in crashes but she managed a best finish of 29th in her first year, in the Rallye Terre de Lozere. 

She added gravel rallies to her repertoire in 2019 and it proved a good move. She won the French ladies’ championship in 2019 with three event victories in the Antibes-Cote d’Azur, Criterium de Cevennes and Var rallies. However, a tarmac event was her best overall finish again; she was 25th in the Coeur de France Rally, driving a Peugeot 208 this time. Lucile Cypriano was the top female finisher, a couple of minutes ahead. 

Her two ladies' wins in 2020 were not enough to keep her crown although she would have done better had she finished her third event, the Coeur de France Rally. The season was curtailed by the global coronavirus crisis. Her car was a 208 again.

She did a combination of gravel and tarmac rallies in 2021 and had a best finish of 23rd in the Antibes-Cote d'Azure Rally, from 57 finishers. In February, she did her first rally outside France, the Rally Ronde del Canavese in Italy, although she did not finish. This was one of ten events she did that year.

During the winter season, she competed in the G Series ice-racing championship in Andorra. She was driving a Renault Clio in the Challenge Clio Ice Trophy class and she was eleventh in the championship. She reached one A final in the third round, finishing seventh.

Her first rally of 2022 was in a new car, a Rally5-spec Renault Clio. It gave her a 32nd place in the Rallye Regional des Roches Brunes. For the Le Touquet Rally, she was back in the Peugeot. She announced that this would be her primary car for the season. She was tenth in the French Tarmac championship, with a best finish of fourteenth in the Rallye Coeur de France. This was one of two Rally4 class wins for her and co-driver Marine Delon, the other being a 20th place in the Rallye Regional de la Vesubie.

Her sister is French ladies’ champion, Charlotte Dalmasso. The pair competed together in 2016, with Pauline in the co-driver’s seat. Their best finish was a seventh place in the Rallye Regional de la Croisette. 

(Image copyright Pauline Dalmasso)

Lisa Caceres

 

Lisa Caceres raced sportscars and saloons in the USA in the 1980s. She is probably most famous for winning races in the SCCA Endurance Series in 1987, with Desiré Wilson. 

They won the Sears Point race, in a Saleen Mustang. Lyn St. James and Donna Sue Landon were also members of their team, and they raced together throughout 1987 in endurance events, with Molly Elliott filling in with Desire was unavailable.  

She had driven a Saleen before, in 1986, sharing with Steve Saleen himself and Alice Ridpath in the SCCA Endurance championship. She was 21st in the Longest Day of Nelson 24-hour race and 15th in the 6 Hours of Road Atlanta. A slightly different team, including Skeeter McKitterick, was twelfth in the 24 Hours of Mosport, with a class win. The final race of the year, at Mid-Ohio, resulted in a 17th place. 

In June 1985, she entered the IMSA Firestone Firehawk race at St Louis, double-driving in two different Camaros with Les Linley. This was her first appearance in a pro-level race after a few seasons of production car competition.

That year, Lisa drove a Chevrolet Camaro in at least one IMSA race, at Riverside, running in the GTO class. She did not finish, but was classified 41st despite crashing out after a tyre blowout. Her car was struck by two other cars, leaving her with a broken jaw, three cracked ribs and a broken bone in her foot.

In a 1986 interview, she described how she had first started racing in 1982. She had been watching action at Sears Point and was asked by one of the Bob Bondurant racing school instructors whether she wanted a ride in a racing car. The experience inspired her so much that she signed up with the racing school as soon as she could.

Later, in 1996, after some time racing jet skis and karts, she drove a Chevrolet Lumina in the Pro GT-America series. 

As well as competitive motorsport, she works as a driving instructor, particularly in karts, and has done some screen driving stunts. 

(Image copyright The San Francisco Examiner)

Susan Tucker-Peake

 

Susan and Maralyn Tucker-Peake with one of their trophies

Susan Tucker-Peake raced between 1966 and 1989, starting in club saloon races in the UK and progressing as far as the European Touring Car Championship. 

She won two rallycross races in 1972, in a Ford Anglia, and was the winner of the 1975 Ladies’ Shellsport Escort Championship. 

Although she raced a wide variety of cars throughout her sporting career, she was probably most associated with saloon cars, spending some time racing in the no-limits Special Saloon championship in the ‘70s. In 1973, she raced a Ford Escort with Graham Goode, against the likes of Gerry Marshall. She continued to race in this series until at least 1975, driving an Escort.

Trying yet another discipline, she partnered Maggie Anderson in the 1975 Avon Tour of Britain. Their car was a Renault 11TS entered by Renault Elf Racing, who were running Maggie in their one-make Renault 5 series.

This was combined with regular appearances in the Ladies’ Shellsport Escort Championship. Despite not winning a race, she won the first championship in 1975, ahead of Divina Galica. Divina was the 1976 winner, with Susan in second. She was fourth in 1977.

In 1977, she drove a Renault 5 herself in most of the British Touring Car championship, which led to a works drive with Skoda in the 1978 ETCC. She and Petr Samohyl contested four rounds together in a 130 RS, with a best finish of 21st at Brno. The car was not reliable and this was their only finish. 

After her ETCC adventure, Susan bought a Brabham BT21 F3 single-seater and rebuilt it with her husband. 

During the 1980s, she raced in Formula 4, and in a number of relay races for the BWRDC.

Her earliest motorsport experiences were in trials, competing with her sister Maralyn in their father’s self-built Tucker Nipper car.

After retiring from active competition she served as the President of the British Women Racing Drivers’ Club. In 2003, as Susan TP-Jamieson she wrote Women in Motorsport from 1945 with Peter Tutthill, a book chronicling female drivers since the war.

(Image copyright classictrials.co.uk)

Jeanette Lindstrom

 

Jeanette Lindstrom was one of America’s first female racing drivers. She was also the first woman in Chicago to earn her driving license, aged only thirteen.

In September 1900, she took part in the International Automobile Meeting in Chicago, held at the Washington Park speedway. She raced a Lindstrom electric car against Miss MA Ryan over two miles, winning by half a mile. Her time was 5:56s.

Miss Ryan challenged her to a rematch the day afterwards, which was thrown open to any other women drivers in electric cars, but it is unclear whether this happened. Some reports suggest that Miss Ryan won. 

According to some newspaper reports, Jeanette learned to drive when she was eleven. At the end of October 1900, she was certified by the city electrician to drive in public, having passed an exam on the workings of an electric car. There was no practical test. Other sources claim she had only been driving for a few months prior to this.

Jeanette’s motoring fortunes were linked to those of her father, Charles, who was an inventor and engineer who founded the Hewitt-Lindstrom electric car company with John Hewitt. Only one model of car was ever produced and this “high-geared runabout” was the car raced by Jeanette. Production ceased in 1901 and the company folded in 1902.

Jeanette disappeared from public life after this. 

(Image from The Western News)